Travel and board worked out from the hall to the job
Appello works out travel pay on every timesheet from the agreement's rate card. It measures from the union hall, the office or the worker's home to the job, finds the zone, and puts that zone's travel amount, plus board and parking, on the day. Agreements that pay by the kilometre work too. It is for union contractors whose crews travel to site, and it is live today.
Union travel pay: how it works
One rate card per agreement
Each version of an agreement carries a rate card with its start date. The card holds the zones — from and to kilometres, with a travel amount for each — plus a daily board or per diem rate and a daily parking rate. A new agreement brings a new card; older days keep the card they were paid on.
Choose where travel starts
Measure from the union hall, the company office, the worker's home or any address you set. A hall can have its own travel starting point. If a job sits right on a zone line, you decide whether it falls in the higher or the lower zone.
Zones or kilometres
Pay by zone, or pay a rate per kilometre or mile with an unpaid first stretch. Distance claims show the kilometres submitted and the kilometres approved, so the office can adjust before it signs off.
On the timesheet, once a day
Each job row shows its zone. Travel, board and parking land once per day — on the furthest job or the job with the most hours, as your agreement sets. The office can change an amount on the day, and crews who clock in and out can have travel or board claimed for them.
A normal week with it
- Monday
A crew starts on a job well outside town. The job's zone shows on every row they log. Nobody measures anything.
- Thursday
One worker spends the afternoon on a second job closer in. Travel still lands once, on the furthest job, unless the office moves it.
- Payroll day
The Timesheet Log shows travel, zone, board and parking beside the hours. Approve, lock the week and export — travel goes out with the wages.
What travel pay costs without it
Travel is often the most argued-over line on a union timesheet. Without a rate card in the system, it comes down to someone's memory of the map.
- The office looks up each job on a map and works out the zone, one timesheet at a time.
- Two workers on the same job land in different zones because two people measured.
- Board gets paid on a day that already paid travel, or missed on a day it was owed.
- When new zone rates start, old days get repriced by accident, or new days don't.
Union travel pay: common questions
How does Appello measure the distance?
Appello measures travel distance in a straight line from the starting point — the hall, the office, the worker's home or an address you choose — to the job's location. It is not driving distance. The rate card's zone map shows the rings around the starting point, so everyone can see where a job falls. If a job sits on a zone line, you decide which zone it gets.
Can workers claim travel by the kilometre instead of by zone?
Yes, if the agreement pays that way. Appello's travel pay can use a rate per kilometre or mile, with an unpaid first stretch, instead of zones. The worker submits the kilometres, and the claim shows the kilometres submitted and the kilometres approved, so the office can adjust before it signs off.
What happens to past timesheets when zone rates change?
Appello leaves past travel pay as it was when zone rates change. Days before the new rate card's start date keep their old rates, and so do approved days and any amount the office set by hand. Before you save, Appello lists the open timesheets that will change.
Travel pay & zones, on your own jobs
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